IRAQ: Turn the Lights Onby Joe Cochrane, Newsweek InternationalAmericans were as wrong about the health of Iraq's infrastructure as they were about their welcome as liberators and the insurgents know that depriving Iraq of power is at least as effective as killing soldiers and policemen.

US: Want Big Bucks For Big Risks? Jobs Open In Iraq, AfghanistanPlumbers, electricians, truck drivers, food-service workers, logistics specialists and other professionals work 12-hour days providing support services to American troops. It's hard, dangerous work. But the pay is high. A year on the job can change the average person's financial life.

Iraq: Trade Bank of Iraq Gets $2.4 bln Export Guaranteesby Haitham Haddadin, ReutersThe U.S.-established Trade Bank of Iraq on Saturday said it has secured a total of $2.4 billion in export guarantees for firms seeking postwar rebuilding deals. Bank President Hussein al-Uzri told a news conference in Kuwait City it was also close to signing a new deal for hundreds of millions of dollars more with a Pan-Arab organisation.

Iraq: Questions Raised About Creative Associates Contractby Jackie Spinner, Washington PostThe Washington firm awarded a government contract worth up to $157 million to rebuild Iraq's educational system may have helped shape the proposal it was then asked to bid on, according to a critical internal government review. The inspector general's office at the U.S. Agency for International Development said Creative Associates International Inc. participated in a roundtable discussion with agency officials about Iraq's education system last November, four months before USAID invited it and four other companies to bid on the work. Creative Associates was the only firm to bid, and it listed three of the four competitors as possible subcontractors.

US: Iraq healthcare system faces $1.6 billion financing gapby Sunita Kaul, The Daily StarAfter 13 years of economic sanctions, the healthcare system in Iraq is in disrepair. A further blow was dealt to it by the damage caused by the looting of hospitals and clinics since the war began and the ongoing disruptions in the delivery of supplies and equipment.

US: Bechtel criticized over school project in Iraqby Larry Kaplow, Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service President Bush and other U.S. officials tout the repairs to Iraq's schools as a hallmark of an American-led renewal, a symbol of hope for a new generation of Iraqis. But for many in Baghdad, including some U.S. troops involved in the work, Bechtel's school rehabilitation appears slipshod and wasteful.